Ambushed --my interview with "BD."

Previously I've stated that is it "almost always" in your best interest to make contact with the media.

This post concerns an exception to the rule.

I'm allegedly an expert. As a journalist I conducted thousands of interviews and I have been the subject of hundreds of interviews since then. I have pretty good instincts and possess a lot of confidence in my ability to avoid being ambushed and to steer a troubled interview back on the road.

But things happen. I make mistakes occasionally and get myself into a pickle. If you talk to the media you will make mistakes too. Don't let that scare you. If you have your wits about you and always take the calm, reasonable, professional high road even an media "ambush" can be weathered.

This is the story. I had fielded so many media calls on a certain contentious subject that handling that subject was becoming routine. So I had let my guard down. The shift in tone during one particular interview took a moment to sink in.

The journalist [let’s call him “BD”] was questioning me over the phone. After a fairly routine question his voice suddenly changed. “Look," he stated flatly. “You realize you sound foolish saying that, don’t you? I don’t believe what you are telling me and no one else is going to believe it either. Your position is just ridiculous.”

Up till now I had been operating on autopilot, answering questions as presented and finding opportunities to insert my standard talking points on this issue. I may have even snuck a peek at an email message. BD’s sudden snide tone caught me off guard. I said something witty like, “Huh?”

“You cannot tell me that [insert outrageous allegation here] didn’t happen,” DB pronounced. “You need to just tell me the truth.”

I gathered my wits and took a deep breath and – with some effort-- pulled my “Professional Communicator” hat more firmly down on my head.

“Look. BD…” I began. “I’ve been very frank with you. There is nothing to be gained by being insulting.”

“YOU are insulting ME,” BD replied with venom. “You are not telling me the truth. You are avoiding my questions. I know that [insert outrageous allegation] is true as well as you do!”

I could feel my metaphorical ‘professionalism hat’ loosening on my head again as I listened to this journalist yell at me over the phone and stop just short of calling me a liar.

So I took another deep breath before I responded.

“BD,” I said as calmly as I could manage, pronouncing the here-visible scare quotes and emphasized words with audible precision. “I can tell you that I do not ‘know’ that allegation is true because it is not true. And you do not ‘know’ it is true because it is not true. I also know that if I were mistaken and you did have proof that [insert outrageous allegation] was true then you would be writing a story about it rather than yelling at me over the phone. So how about we just…”

But my calm tone didn’t have the desired effect on BD. Instead BD chose to raise the stakes. “You are lying!” he told me forcefully. “And if you don’t tell me the truth about what really happened you will lose all credibility. You won’t have any credibility with me and you won’t have any credibility with anyone else and I’ll make sure of that!”

I then thanked BD for his interest in the situation and invited him to call back when he had calmed down. As I hung up the phone [without having lost my temper] I drew much needed strength from my knowledge that months later [now, as I write this] I would be able to look back with some pride at how I handled the situation.

Facts eventually emerged that proved BD’s allegations were false. His loud and insulting manner was merely an effort to shake me up in hope that I’d say something interesting. He failed.

So. Who do you think really harmed their credibility?


[NOTE:I am paraphrasing this conversation based on my notes from the call with deletions and modifications for the sake of confidentiality and brevity. As for the journalist known as BD: “the names have been changed to protect the [less than] innocent.”]